The Impatient White Lotus
by IchigogichI
Summary: What if the White Lotus had gotten tired of waiting for the Avatar and wanted to come up with their own solution for peace in the world.
1. Prologue

**A/N: edited, realized after uploading that I hadn't described him.**

**Prologue:**

The guards drug the boy into the main hall of the Beifong household.

"Ey, lemme go!" He shouted struggling against the guards. The boy was quite thin and shrimpy with black hair.

They tossed him to the floor in front of the Beifongs, "This boy was outside harassing our doves, what should we do with him?"

"Call the city guards, and have them put him in a cell for a night, we don't need his kind around here," Lao said.

The guards went to pick him back up and he growled, leaping up and earth-bending a rock out of the wall. They deflected the rock and tackled him, grabbing him by the hair and pulling it out of his blind eyes.

"Wait!" Poppy exclaimed, "Boy, are you blind?"

"What's it to you!" he shouted more than asked, struggling against the guards.

"Lao, get the guards off him,"

"But Poppy, he-"

"Now!"

Lao waved the guards back.

"Thank you Lao, now, boy, our little girl, three years old, is blind, and we need someone who can be a friend and protector to her, someone she can trust, now, I take it you're an orphan?"

He gulped slowly, swallowing tears, "Yes"

"Well, you can stay with us, free food and a roof over your head, would you like that?"

"I'm no babysitter lady," he said grumpily.

"We have the guards for that, you just need to keep her company. Of course, we will be keeping a close eye on you for a while," Poppy offered.

"That would be," he sighed "Nice, thank you"

Poppy stood and began walking towards him, "Very well then, in the morning we will have the tailor make up something for you, we can't have you wearing these rags," She lifted up the hair in front of his eyes "And you'll need a haircut," She paused noting the scarring around his eyes, "Boy, how long have you been blind?"

"Two years, since I was four," he grimaced as she touched the scars.

"Did you have any preferred colors when you could see?" she said in her best motherly voice.

"Purple" he said quietly.

"I'll ask the tailor what color he would recommend with that" Poppy sighed, "for now we'll get you bathed and then a haircut," Poppy paused, "What's your name boy?"

"Da-Liu... Uhm?"

"Poppy Beifong, call me missus Beifong or just ma'am" Poppy said softly.

"Yes, Ma'am" She nodded and led him off.

* * *

Da-Liu waited in the dining room for Toph, kneeling at the foot at the table, facing the entry door. It was his second day here and he was meeting Toph for the first time. He had a deep purple shirt with a silvery lining and black pants held up by a silk belt.

Toph walked in slow stumbling steps, a guard led her in by her hand and released her in front of Da-Liu.

Da-Liu then said the line he had been told to practice over and over, "Hello Toph, I'm here so that you won't be so lonely anymore, I'm here to be your," he took a deep breath "Friend"

"H-hi" She tilted her head, "What's your name?"

"Da-Liu" he bowed his head hesitantly.

"Right" She sat up at the table and he stayed planted on the floor like Poppy had instructed and he got his rice bowl shortly after Toph got hers. He ate it ravenously.

* * *

A year later Toph had realized that bringing in Da-Liu was one of the first ways they had started trying to steer her towards a suffocating life-style. She had called him friend all this time, but they made him act in a way that it was clear that she was his better. She decided there was something wrong with this and began to correct it, "Mom, why does my friend have to eat on the floor?"

"Well, Da-Liu is a servant, we couldn't possibly have him eat with us," Lao defended.

"Da-Liu is my friend, mom says so," Toph said, feeling she was repeating herself.

"But he-" Lao began.

Poppy shot him a look, "Da-Liu, Toph is right, you should eat at the table with us"

Da-Liu nodded and slowly got up and walked over to the table and pulled out a seat, sitting down and scooting it forward with earth-bending.

They were served their food and Toph sniffed at Da-Liu's food with disdain. Rice porridge with soy beans, she sniffed at her food, noodles with roast turtle-duck, chili peppers and mango slices. She switched her bowl with Da-Liu's before he could take a bite. He turned to her and looked at her but she stared at her mother with her blind eyes.

Poppy breathed in heavily, realizing she had gone about this the wrong way.

Da-Liu slowly started eating and so did Toph, swallowing her food quickly so she didn't have to taste it.

* * *

Toph returned home after being with the badger-moles and Da-Liu held her tight, tears in his eyes, "Toph, you ran off... And left me alone"

"I-I'm sorry Da-Liu" She tried to hug him back but Poppy pulled him off her.

"How could you let this happen! You're lucky she wasn't hurt!" she pulled back her hand to hit him and Toph stood in between them.

"I'm sorry mom, it was my fault, I told him to stay behind," She broke down and gripped Toph's shoulders.

"Don't do this again!" Poppy demanded.

"I won't mom"

"And you! You don't leave her" Da-Liu nodded, Poppy sighed, "Da-Liu, take her to the bath, I'll go get clothes for her"

Poppy ran off and Da-Liu began leading Toph to the bath "So, how were the badger-moles?"

"How did you-?" Toph started.

"How do you think I learned Earth-bending?" Da-Liu tilted his head.

Toph sighed, "Ok, so what now?"

"Now, we friends who have been raised together have a shared secret," Da-Liu said definitively, "And now we're gonna take a bath"

* * *

Da-Liu waited for Toph outside of Earth Rumble 6 and she groaned, feeling his presence.

"A productive trip to the bathroom I take it? You had a much more relaxed stride till you came up to me,"

"Wait... You mean... You're not gonna tell my parents?" Toph asked quietly.

"Tell them what? Come on, we've been out on our walk too long, your parents will be expecting us back.


	2. The Blind Bandit

**A/N: edited chapter, realized after uploading that I didn't have his new description.**

Da-Liu had grown much larger. His arms still thin but his shoulders large and muscular like his legs, he looked a proper earth-bender. He now had clothes modeled after the Dai-Li with no shoes and a shirt still purple with no patterns. He had a black conical hat and a purple blindfold that he wore at all times.

Toph growled at Da-Liu after she left earth rumble, "What the hell were you doing out here! Your range is a lot better than mine and you know who the Avatar is too, so why didn't you warn me?"

"On stage in a stadium in front of hundreds of people? You're kept secret as the Beifong's daughter, but I am well known to be the Beifong's pet" Da-Liu explained calmly.

"Ugh, at least it's over," she groaned.

"I wouldn't count on it, he may not know who you are, but he won't give up after challenging you on a stage, defeating you, and then still only wanting to talk after... Still, let's hope he won't be able to find us" Da-Liu tried to sooth her.

Toph grumbled as they went back to the house.

* * *

They were in the garden and Toph brought in the gang with Earth-bending, "Hello twinkle toes,"

"How'd you know it was me?"

"I'd recognize your dainty little footsteps anywhere"

"Oh"

"What do you want?" Da-Liu interrupted, "Since I assume it's not being fed to my eel-hound, you better hurry with it"

"Well, I want her to become my Earth-bending teacher,"

"Not interested, calling the guards" Da-Liu replied immediately.

"Wait!" Aang said.

"Guards!" Da-Liu shouted as he used his earth-bending to raise a wall between them. They ran off as he earth-bent a rock into the air on the other side of the wall.

The guards showed up, "Da-Liu, where are the intruders?"

"I made a wall to hold them off, but they seem to have run away as soon as I called you, the cowards"

"Umm, miss Beifong, you don't need to tell your parents about this, do you?" he asked anxiously.

"Well, I'm not hurt," Toph began.

"And I assume you can learn about the holes in your defenses, correct?" Da-Liu pushed, staring at them.

"Yes, yes of course," The head guard said anxiously, then whispering to the others "Let's go, he's always creeped me out with his stare"

The guards ran back to their positions and looked out for the supposed bandits who didn't exist.

"Well Toph, I would expect to see him at dinner tonight"

"Yeah, well, let's go inside now," she sighed.

* * *

Toph grumbled when the servant announced that Aang would be coming in and Da-Liu put a hand on her shoulder.

Da-Liu quietly took Toph outside after they finished eating, keeping her calm through dinner.

Aang followed, "Listen Aang, I can't just start teaching you, I can't come with you, my family is trying to shelter me and keep me safe, even though I don't need it, I can't have them worrying"

"Toph, I didn't kno-"

The metal cages captured them.

Toph jumped up at the bars of the cage but Da-Liu pulled her down, "Relax, we can't do anything up here, your parents will pay the ransom and we'll be released, but I know their type, they probably won't release the Avatar,"

The Beifongs, Yu, Sokka and Katara show up and pay the ransom and Toph's cage was lowered. Da-liu got out with Toph and looked up at Aang's cage.

"Well? Aren't you gonna release Aang?" Toph began walking away with her parents and Da-Liu stayed behind.

"Da-Liu, come, this isn't our business anymore," Lao called back.

Da-Liu turned and began walking back with them.

"The Fire Nation will pay a hefty sum for him," Xin-Fu said with a chuckle.

"Toph! We need your help! You've defeated all these guys before!"

"My daughter is tiny, blind and helpless, she can't help you"

"No, I can," Toph turned and began walking out to the stage again.

Da-Liu sat with Yu and Lao with a sigh.

"You need to wait a bit before following," Toph told Da-Liu.

"I know, I will grab my eel hound and go after you after five minutes so that we know you're gone, I'll have to leave a note though... Glad I learned to write before I went blind" Da-Liu sighed and went to getting paper and pen.

Toph ran off and by the time he had written the note it was time to go.

He jumped on his eel-hound and ran off after Toph to meet up with the Avatar.

He leapt off the eel-hound right after Toph got her belt back.

"James, you need to go ahead of us, run straight to Ba-Sing-Se, I will find you there later," It nodded and ran off.

"It knows the way to Ba-Sing-Se?" Katara asked.

"Yeah, that's where it was born, Toph wanted to celebrate my anniversary of being here a few years ago and asked her parents to get me something, I wanted an eel-hound so they ordered one from Ba-Sing-Se,"

"Why'd you send it to Ba-Sing-Se?"

"It's the Earth-kingdom capital, they know him, they know who ordered him and we're bound to head there sometime anyways," Da-Liu sighed and jumped on Appa with Toph and they took off.

"It must be hard for you, I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I lost Appa" Aang said patting his head.

"Yeah, but we'll see each other again... Someday"


	3. The chase

**A/N: I try to get to stories quicker when I have reviews**

As the team began to set up camp Da-Liu raised some earth like a parasol to cover them from rain, he then sighed and sat down, leaning against the pillar silently. Katara thanked him and began helping to set up camp with Aang and Sokka. She notices Toph and walks over to her, "So Toph, usually when setting up camp we try to divide up the work,"

"Umm, miss Katara," Da-Liu interjected, "I set up the earth parasol, wouldn't you say that's more than enough work for myself and miss Beifong? If not, I would be happy to do more work on her behalf," Katara sighed.

"No, it's fine, thank you very much Da-Liu," She walked off back to the rest of the group.

"Well, it's time for bed, guys, good night," Sokka said loudly to the group, curling up in his sleeping bag.

Da-Liu who had already been asleep for a while woke up with a start, "No time, something big is coming, like a stampede!" He sunk his hands into the earth parasol and shattered it to dust, "Quick, we gotta move!"

"It's a good thing we didn't need a tent," Aang said leaping up and air-bending the saddle back onto Appa. Da-Liu waved his hand in the air and the dust cloud moved in between them and the thing.

They looked back at the thing fast approaching and gaped in awe and terror. Da-Liu had already gone back to sleep once he got on Appa.

"How does he get to sleep so fast?" Sokka asked, staring at him obviously envious.

Everyone collectively shrugged, "I've never understood it either, although for a week after I got back from the badger-moles he couldn't sleep unless he was holding me," Toph remarked.

They landed again and Da-Liu woke up, quickly jumping down and making the Earth parasol again.

Toph jumped down, "Oh land sweet land!"

"Actually, Toph, could you help us unload?"

"Really, you need me to offload Sokka's funky smelling sleeping bag?"

"Well, yes, that and everything else,"

"Well Miss Katara, I could do that for her," Da-Liu said softly.

"This isn't about you, this is about-"

"Miss Beifong, yes,"

"Sugar queen, I can carry my own weight, as you can see, my friend here is more than willing to help with everything else, so stop bugging me!" She made her tent and shut it up.

"Sugar queen!?" She moved to hit the rock tent and Da-Liu stopped her.

"You might hurt your hand," He said softly, his face devoid of expression.

Katara grumbled and went back to unloading, Da-Liu sat outside Toph's tent.

"Miss Beifong, do you need anything?" he asked.

"No, no thanks, I'm good," he nodded and fell asleep.

"Your friend made a wonderful shelter, too bad you can't enjoy it Toph!" Katara said snidely.

Toph shot her into the air with Earthbending and Sokka yelled at the two and Toph was the one who alerted the group this time, "Hey, that thing that Da-Liu was talking about is back!"

"It's much closer than last time," Da-Liu didn't destroy the parasol this time, instead flinging it whole at the thing.

They all climbed back on Appa and flew off into the mountains.

* * *

"I'm not setting up the parasol this time, I think it might be making it easier to find us," Da-Liu sighed, staying in Appa's saddle.

"Well, we might as well just find the softest patch of dirt and go to sleep," Sokka chimed in.

"That's ok, Toph didn't want to help anyways,"

"I didn't realize that baby still needed someone to tuck her into bed!"

"Come on guys, there's something after us, and we don't even know what or who it is,"

"It could be Zuko, we haven't seen him since the north pole,"

"Who's Zuko?"

"Oh, just some freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all over the world,"

"What's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?"

"This is a warrior's wolf-tail,"

"Well, it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky!"

"Anyways, whatever was chasing us couldn't have followed us, so will everyone just shh,"

Da-Liu woke up "Think again Sokka,"

"I can feel it with my own two feet!"

He jumped down.

"Maybe we should stay, find out if they're friendly?"

The girls ran out.

"Well, three girls, riding... Lizards..."

"It's those girls from Omashu!"

Da-Liu encased them in rock and through a boulder at the opening Azula made for good measure, Azula destroyed that as well and Da-Liu made pillars to launch all of them onto Appa.

"Fly!" Da-Liu said as they landed, Aang already at the reins.

* * *

"Oh no, the sun is rising, we've been up all night with no sleep!" He looked at Da-Liu who fell asleep when he hit the saddle, "Well, most of us anyways!" He screamed into Da-Liu's ear.

"So what's the plan,"

"I'm sure we'll come up with something after a short nap," They began falling out of the sky and Da-Liu somehow stayed rooted in the saddle, despite everyone else lifting up into the air.

Appa woke up, just in time to let them crash land into the forest.

Da-Liu woke up and jumped down with a sigh.

"We should all follow Appa's lead and get some sleep,"

"Although, we could have gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues"

"What!"

"All right all right, everyone's exhausted, let's just get some sleep"

"No, I want to hear this!"

"I'm just saying, if you had helped earlier we could have set up camp faster and gotten sleep"

"You're blaming me for this? If there's anyone to blame, it's Appa, his shedding has been leaving them a trail to follow!"

"What! How dare you blame Appa, if there's anyone to blame it's you, you always talk about carrying your own weight, but you're not, Appa's carrying it, he could fly just fine without you!"

"Fine, Da-Liu, we're leaving," Da-Liu nodded.

* * *

Toph Earthbent, knocking Iroh over.

Da-Liu sighed, "You just hurt an old man," He walked over and helped Iroh up, "Sorry, she hasn't been able to sleep all night, I notice your tea-set, may we have some?"

Iroh nodded solemnly.

He poured Toph a cup and then Da-Liu, "You two seem a little young to be traveling without help"

"You seem a bit old," Toph said, sipping her tea.

Iroh chuckled, "Perhaps,"

"You think I'm too weak to take care of myself, you wouldn't even let me pour my own cup,"

"I poured your tea because I wanted to and no other reason,"

"People see me and they think I'm weak, they want to take care of me, heck even my closest friend here does it all the time, I can take care of myself, by myself,"

"You sound like my nephew, always thinking you need to do things on your own without anyone's support, there is nothing wrong with letting people who love you help you," Da-Liu put a hand on her shoulder, "Not that I love you, I just met you, cherish your friend"

Toph chuckled, "So, where is your nephew?"

"I've been tracking him actually"

"Is he lost"

"Yes a little bit, his life has recently changed and he's going through rough times and he's having trouble finding out who he really is,"

"So, you're following him,"

"I know he doesn't want me around right now, but if he needs me, I'll be there,"

"Your nephew is very lucky, even if he doesn't know it, thank you,"

"My pleasure, sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's true delights"

"No,Thank you for what you said, it helped me,"

"Thank you sir," Da-Liu bowed.

"And about your nephew, maybe you should tell him that you need him too,"


	4. Serpents pass

**A/n: Bitterwork, the library and the desert are all largely unchanged as Da-Liu doesn't talk much, the only purpose his presence serves is minor dialogue changes of the main characters of the series. I am trying very hard not to just make this a recap of the series.**

"We'll take care of this," Toph and Da-Liu walked up to the podium and each put their passports up onto it, "My name is Toph Beifong and I'll need four tickets,"

"And I am the pet of the Beifongs, no doubt you've heard of me, I will be needing a ticket as well,"

"The golden seal of the flying boar! Never would I have thought that I could have the privilege of seeing two together, it is my pleasure to help anyone of the Beifong family,"

"It is your pleasure, as you can see, we are blind and these three imbeciles are our valets,"

"But the animal,"

"Is my seeing eye lemur,"

"Well, normally it's only one ticket per passport, but these are so official, I guess they're worth all five tickets" Da-Liu took the tickets.

"Thank you very much"

"Water," Da-Liu twitched nervously.

They went under, Aang and Katara making the bubble in the water. He began to twitch more when they were under, staring intently to the right.

"Hey, are you ok?" Suki asked him.

"What?" he said, looking at her for a moment, "Oh, yeah"

He gulped as the shadow went over the bubble.

The serpent burst through and he and Toph brought them up to the surface.

"I just figured out-" Da-Liu punched him.

"Not helping"

Aang drew it's attention as Katara laid out ice for everyone, Da-Liu and Toph stayed on the rock.

"Toph, come on it's just ice"

"Actually, I'm gonna stay on my little island where I can see," Da-Liu picked up Toph and leapt onto the ice with her just before the serpent crashed on the rock.

It crashed into the ice.

"No!" Da-Liu began to waterbend a water pillar, taking both him and Toph into the air, he made it carry them down to the rock path where everyone was gaping at him. He set Toph down and cleared his throat, "Clearly, I have some explaining to do, but for now, I think we should try to get away from the sea serpent,"

Toph kissed him on the cheek as they ran up the path to watch how Aang and Katara were doing.

They cheered when Aang and Katara returned.

Now completely safe, Toph punched Da-Liu in the shoulder, "You, explain, now!"

Aang and Katara looked confused.

"I umm, well, I can waterbend and earthbend, can we discuss this later?" They nodded and ran to the end of the path, happy that they made it.

"Now, explai-"

"Oh! The baby's coming!" Sokka panicked while Katara sorted it out.

"Ok, fill me in when I get back, ok guys?"

They nodded, Suki said her farewell and ran off.

Those that were left looked to Da-Liu, "Ok, listen, I can only explain it as well as I remember it from when I was five... My father's dying words were to tell me this..." He sighed, "My father was a member of the white lotus, a secret organization with members from all four nations working together to attempt to help the world from the background. My father was a talented water bender and he came up with a few techniques himself. Using a manipulation of healing techniques he was able to make copies of people called clones, just from a single piece them, hair, skin, nails, you name it, he could make copies with enough energy. One day, he decided he couldn't wait for the avatar to return and decided to try to clone a past one to bring them back. He couldn't find anything of Roku's so he went to Kyoshi island, snuck in and got a single torn toenail from inside Kyoshi's boot, it was barely enough. But it never worked, the spirit would not return to the body. He came up with an alternate solution, he would make a child with Kyoshi's remnant. He took a bit of his own DNA and combined it with Kyoshi's and it worked, it created a child, me, he raised me till I was 5, taught me waterbending and died in an avalanche," He sighed softly.

"So wait, why aren't you full Avatar?" Sokka asked.

"The Avatar exists, I am less than half of an Avatar" he sighed, "While an Avatar has all four elements and a connection to the spirit realm, I can only manipulate two elements and I have no connection... When I die, that's it for me,"

Sokka scratched his chin, "We're not too keen on letting Aang die either, it would make things difficult,"

Aang came back.

"Well, that was quick, did you find Aapa already?"

"No, but Appa can wait..."


End file.
